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How to use affect v effect .
Using affect and effect properly
TRANSCRIPT
Hi, I’m Jonathan Bennett. Today, we’re talking about “affect” and “effect”, are they the same word and if not, how are they different?
Let’s begin by saying no, they’re not the same word. Affect and effect are two different words that when native speakers say them very quickly, almost sound the same. And they can be very confusing. But they are very different words.
Let’s start by talking about how to say them. Let’s begin by saying affect. Now, affect and effect, they have the different starting vowel sound. Let’s practice them, have you say them after me here.
Affect. Affect
Effect. Effect.
Now, let’s read the two example sentences I have written on the board and then let’s talk about the ways these two words are different and the ways we use them.
The weather affects the way we dress. Go ahead and repeat that one after me. Listen to me as I say it one more time and then repeat it for me. The weather affects the way we dress.
Now let’s take a look at our second sentence.
The weather had a surprising effect. Let’s say that one one more time. The weather had a surprising effect.
Now these two words are connected to each other, they are similar, but they are very different.
Affect is a verb. So when we use the word affect, what we mean is this thing changed this thing. The weather affects the way we dress. The weather changes the way that we dress.
If it’s hot outside, we wear shorts and t-shirts. If it’s cold we wear coats and long pants. This is the effect, the effect from the weather. So we say the weather affects the way we dress.
If we’re talking about effect, this is the change that happened because of something. This is the noun. Affects cause effects. Let’s talk about that. That’s confusing, let’s talk about that as we look at this sentence here.
The weather had a surprising effect. This is a noun, surprising modifies it. And we’re talking about the change that the weather made. Over here we have, “The weather affects the way we dress,” over here we have “The weather had a surprising effect.” Effect is a noun in this sentence.
What we’re looking at here is we’re talking about some fact, some aspect, some quality about this change. That’s when we use the word effect. Most native speakers, when they’re using the word effect, what they’re trying to say is this aspect, this part of the change is important. When we use the word affect, we’re talking about the fact that there is a change. When we use the word effect, we’re talking about some part of the change. The surprising effect. The interesting effect. The big effect. We’re talking about some part of the change.
Another example sentence we could have is “The dress code affects all 6th grade students.” That means every 6th grade student will have to change the way that they dress because of the dress code. The dress code affects all 6th grade students.
But if we say over here, “The dress code’s effect was not very big.” Now we’re talking about some part of the change. How did it change? Not very much. Maybe the dress code was just they weren’t allowed to wear hats like me.
The difference between these two words is very important, it’s the difference between a verb and a noun, and there’s an easy way to find the difference. What you do, and this sounds a little silly, but it works every time.
If you can replace the word here, if you don’t know if it should be affect or effect, if you can replace this word with another verb like “Eat” and you still have a verb in your sentence, then you should put affect. If you replace it with the word “eat” and it doesn’t make any sense at all, then you need to write effect.
Let me show you what I mean. In this sentence here, if I say “The weather had a surprising eat.” You know that’s wrong. That’s very clearly wrong because I don’t need a verb here, I need a noun. I need effect.
But over here, if I say “The weather eats the way we dress.” Well, that sentence sounds really really silly, but I have a verb. So since I have a verb, I want to use “affects”. You can use eats, you can use go. You can use any kind of silly word that helps you remember, “If this sentence is silly, but it makes sense, I use ‘affect’. If this sentence makes no sense, I use ‘effect’.”
If you like this video, please feel free to click the like video below. Click the subscribe button if you want to get more videos like this. Thank you very much for listening. I’m Jonathan Bennett and that’s all for today!
How to speak English fluently with native English speakers
